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Florida Film Festival 2015: Film in Florida Panel

April 28, 2015

For local film buffs Florida Film Festival is the place to go for Film, Food, and Friends but it is so much more than that. There is this amazing communal culture to the festival as well. It is also a time of year where you can also indulge in several open discussions about the various aspects of the industry, both locally and as a whole. In fact, Enzian Theater itself is a place where you can meet with like-minded folk and have a healthy conversation about all things cinema.

At the Florida Film Festival panels, which are free and open to the public, you can walk away with some solid knowledge regardless of whether your involvement is as a casual viewer, full-blown cinephile, or even as a filmmaker. So without burying the lede too terribly, these takeaways merely scratch the surface of what was discussed during this panel. For more, we’ve included the entire discussion via OrlandoLIVE here:

The first and foremost of this year’s Florida Film Festival discussions was the Film in Florida panel, which focused on the importance of the Florida film community and the value of bringing in more production from outside of state. Here are my Top 5 takeaways from this panel:

“As a film community, I think it’s our responsibility, over all, to try and find solutions to bringing and keeping production here. We have great crews, amazing facilities and a supportive community.”– Kim Dawson, Producer

“Within our region (Lake, Orange, Osceola, and Seminole County) we have duplicated six of the seven continents. You can really film almost any project here. You dream it and we have it, essentially.”– Lindsey Fuller, Associate Director Film & Digital Media Orlando Economic Development Commission

“The truth of the matter is: the existing program, that has no tax credits left, will benefit 342 projects before it’s all said and done. There’s thousands of projects that go on every year, with or without the incentives program. The notion that if the bill isn’t passed and we don’t have an incentive program; that the industry in Florida is dead, is false.”– John Lux, IDEAS Orlando

If you’re not a friends of Film Florida, on Facebook, you should be. Because as these votes come up, they’re putting out information on their Facebook page. Along with their website, they provide easy line to the chamber of commerce. Also: Free Stickers.– Katie Waters, Script Supervisor

Where can film students and filmmakers meet people to work with? Florida Film Festival, any of the FilmSlam, Brouhaha, Enzian events, local film festivals, go to that stuff, talk to people, meet them. If you have things you’re working on that you’re excited about; they might be interested in it. Tell them about it. You’ll probably tell a lot of people who won’t care, but eventually someone will care and check out your stuff. Just meet people.– Jason Kupfer, Filmmaker